Attitude of indifference encouraging corruption in Ghana – Richard Quayson

Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Richard Quayson has called on Ghanaians to contribute actively to the fight against corruption.

Mr Quayson said the country is not performing well in the fight against corruption because the people who are affected most by the act unconcerned and sit aloof while the canker persists.

He noted that Ghanaians only talk and accuse people of being corrupt but do not take any action to rid the country of such people.

“If even all the anti-corruption agencies in Ghana were doing very well but the people in this country are not playing their role in the fight against corruption, I’ll still rate Ghana as not performing well because you cannot fight corruption when the people who are affected by the corruption are not interested in the fight,” he said.

Additionally, he says, Ghana needs to get to the point where all citizens believe that corruption is not acceptable and collectively act to deal with it.

“Until Ghana gets to that point where everybody begins to see that corruption is not acceptable and that we must take personal interest in fighting and denouncing corruption, we’ll make room for people to continue to think that corruption is acceptable and corrupt our system with impunity.

Richard Quayson was speaking to GhanaWeb on the sidelines of the launch of the 2017 Anti-Corruption and Transparency Week and the National Anti-Corruption Conference at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra.

This year’s celebration is under the theme ‘NACAP: Strengthening Public, Private and Civil Society Partnership in the fight against corruption’, and seeks to discuss the implementation of the 2016 NACAP report.

It also hopes to, among other things, raise awareness of the NACAP and mobilize resources and efforts for its implementation and to bring stakeholders and partners together to plan and fight corruption.